Airbus formally launched the A380 programme in 2000.
The launch followed years of Airbus studies into a very large aircraft capable of carrying more passengers than existing wide-body jets. Airbus announced the programme at the Farnborough Airshow in September 2000, initially under the working designation Airbus A3XX before the aircraft was renamed A380.
The A380 was designed as a full-length, two-deck airliner and became Airbus’s largest commercial aircraft. Its unusual designation skipped the number A350, reflecting Airbus’s decision to reserve the “8” for the double-deck aircraft’s identity and Asian-market associations.
Programme launch is different from the A380’s first flight, which took place in 2005, and from its entry into airline service, which occurred in 2007 with Singapore Airlines. Airbus ended A380 production in 2021.